Gabrielle Torrez

Today, we head home, we have to leave the hotel by 1030 am and that’s saddening for us because that means yesterday was our last day for any real activities.  Which was well spent, I took a mini 1 day cruise to 3 islands: Hydra, Poros, and Aegina. They were beautiful! And I rode a donkey! A day well spent for me. 

But as for today, not wanting to face the reality that we would soon be on a long, sad flight out of the country we have all grown to love, a few of us got up at 7am (or earlier) to do some last minute exploring and of course spend whatever euros we had left over. It’s Sunday and we didn’t expect any stores to be open, as most European countries follow this rule. However, being in tourist central, the shops opened at 0900. You better believe I took advantage of this time, and didn’t take into consideration how early in the morning it was, I got gelato. Two scoops. It was wonderful. 

During this time, we saw a man rolling a cart that was FILLED with doughnuts., doughnuts larger than my face and dipped in pure sugar. Nope, not powdered sugar, real sugar, like what you you put in your coffee. It was totally awesome! Virginia made a joke at this time, “only three men I’ll chase after, the elote (corn on the cob, which we got a lot of in Thessaloniki), the ice cream man, and the doughnut man!” 

At the Athens airport, I ordered my last Freddocapuccino, and it was great, I need to find a place that sells these! When landing in Germany, the airlines thought it would be funny to make sure we landed in a gate that was EXTREMELY FAR from the gate of our next flight. And if this wasn’t humorous enough for them, they also gave us a 10 minute “layover” from arrival time to the time boarding began. And to make things worse, my bladder chose then that it needed to make a deposit. Fearful of my consequences of failure to comply, I stopped, thus losing more time.  After that giant run of a workout with my bags across what felt like the entire airport, I could have sworn I had just hiked Mt. Olympus again, I was pooped! And yet, the airline gods must not have been satisfied enough by our struggles just yet, because they decided to make sure we didn’t leave the runway until about 45 minutes or so after it was scheduled. We ran all that for nothing. ☺ 

When we went through customs, my guy got upset at me because I was wearing a Purdue sweatshirt, he was an IU man, however this interaction was nice because it was funny and lightened my mood after that super long flight. It’s also always fun to pick on IU people. 

Now I’m sitting in my hotel room, alone, (which is strange), in America (also strange) waiting for my flight home tomorrow morning and to tell everyone about our wonderful adventures in Greece and Cyprus. Till next time, γεια σας! 

Achieved my dream of riding a donkey on the island of Hydra

The giant doughnut

Waiting at the airport in Frankfurt

Quynh Nguyen

Today is our last day in Greece before we take off tomorrow morning. A group of us tried to squeeze in as many activities, historical sites, and souvenir shopping as we could before our Farewell Dinner tonight. I went to the Athenian Agora and its museum. It was fascinating seeing the structure and the columns of the Temple of Hephaistosto be intact since 400 BC. There were many other structures that remained, while others were destroyed. It was piled in organized rows and formed a path that lead to other parts of the Agora.

On our way back from the Agora, we stopped by a flea market. Everyone had their small station of jewelry, handmade clothing, or miscellaneous items. They were all lined up next to each other in one long row on both sides of the walkway. Some stands had an umbrella over it to block out the sun. I could imagine how hot it could get staying outside all day. I noticed that most of the bracelets were handmade; some people were making them there too. A couple of the girls bought jewelry from here too!

My favorite part of the day was at the Olympic Stadium. A few of us ran a victory lap around the Olympic stadium and climbed the stairs to the top of the stands. It was an incredible feeling knowing that I stood where the first Olympic games were held; I ran where the first Olympic runners ran; and I posed on the winner’s podium where the gold medalists received their medals. It felt like making history come to life. Being here made me appreciate the Olympic games more because of all the time and effort put into the stadium in the early days of Greek history.

Tonight was our Farewell Dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Scholario. It was a very traditional family style dinner. We chose ten small dishes for every group of four. Our go to dish was tzatziki sauce because we could eat that with the bread, fried potatoes, and fried zucchini. We also ordered chicken, small fish, calamari, and sausages prepared in traditional sauces and spices. It’s our very last meal with authentic Greek food and with everyone on the trip including Anna and Payanota, our ISA staff members. After we all finished eating, we started taking pictures with everyone to capture this moment of togetherness celebrating our journey throughout Greece with one another. 

Three weeks ago at our Welcome Dinner, we didn’t know each other very well. We started out with small talks and discussed the things we were excited about. We started to get to know each other since day one. Now three weeks later, we learned about each other, shared inside jokes, and talked about our favorite memories throughout the trip. Getting to know this unique group of people these past three weeks has been a great pleasure. We created a lot of memories that will be with us forever. I know I our friendships won’t be ending as this trip comes to an end. 

Courtney and Anna looking at some of the handmade jewelry from the flea market

From inside track to outside are Hailey, Kathryn, Quynh, Matt, and Jenna running a victory lap on the Olympic Stadium

Our final group photo after the Farewell Dinner